Former Travelocity CMO Joins Mobile Startup

NEW YORK Former Travelocity CMO Jeff Glueck has joined mobile Web browser startup Skyfire as CEO.

Glueck spent seven years at Travelocity, where he oversaw the creation of its "Roaming Gnome" ad campaign, and the business grew from $3.5 billion in sales to $10.6 billion.

Travelocity in March named Victoria Treyger, a 12-year marketing veteran at the company, to replace Glueck. She was vp of marketing, merchandising and product marketing.Treyger was vp of merchandise and product marketing at the company, leading its merchandising, DM, search engine marketing and product marketing teams.

Skyfire is a mobile Web browser that is trying to bring a PC-like Internet experience to phones. Outside the iPhone, surfing the Web from a phone can still be a painful experience, Glueck said.

"It has a wow factor," he said. "It's revolutionary."

Glueck takes over at CEO from Skyfire co-founder Nitin Bhandari. The company has raised nearly $18 million in venture capital for development and marketing of its browser. It claims 1 million activations of the browser, which it released out of beta in late May. Tech blogs and review sites have praised the browser for its speed and ability to render the full Web rather than a stripped-down version.

Distribution will be a key area of focus, Glueck said, envisioning brands could help in this by offering Skyfire-enabled mobile versions of their site to goose downloads.

"I think Skyfire has built the best mobile browser," he said. "It can also be the best branded application and personalized advertising platform for mobile phones ever invented."

Skyfire reproduces sites in their Internet version, including Flash video, something other browsers don't do. Skyfire works on mobile phones using the Windows and Symbian operating systems.

NEW YORK Former Travelocity CMO Jeff Glueck has joined mobile Web browser startup Skyfire as CEO.

Glueck spent seven years at Travelocity, where he oversaw the creation of its "Roaming Gnome" ad campaign, and the business grew from $3.5 billion in sales to $10.6 billion.

Travelocity in March named Victoria Treyger, a 12-year marketing veteran at the company, to replace Glueck. She was vp of marketing, merchandising and product marketing.Treyger was vp of merchandise and product marketing at the company, leading its merchandising, DM, search engine marketing and product marketing teams.

Skyfire is a mobile Web browser that is trying to bring a PC-like Internet experience to phones. Outside the iPhone, surfing the Web from a phone can still be a painful experience, Glueck said.

"It has a wow factor," he said. "It's revolutionary."

Glueck takes over at CEO from Skyfire co-founder Nitin Bhandari. The company has raised nearly $18 million in venture capital for development and marketing of its browser. It claims 1 million activations of the browser, which it released out of beta in late May. Tech blogs and review sites have praised the browser for its speed and ability to render the full Web rather than a stripped-down version.

Distribution will be a key area of focus, Glueck said, envisioning brands could help in this by offering Skyfire-enabled mobile versions of their site to goose downloads.

"I think Skyfire has built the best mobile browser," he said. "It can also be the best branded application and personalized advertising platform for mobile phones ever invented."

Skyfire reproduces sites in their Internet version, including Flash video, something other browsers don't do. Skyfire works on mobile phones using the Windows and Symbian operating systems.